IWSG Day & Plotting Madness

Now back to regular blog hop programming. Is it 2018 yet? At the rate it’s going 2017 will be over in a blink of an eye, pardon my cliche. But that means another year of coming together. And offering each other support in our tight knit writing community. As always, thanks for gathering us together goes to ninja extraordinaire Alex Cavanaugh!

Interested in joining us? Click on the badge above. Our Twitter hashtag and handle are #IWSG and @TheIWSG.

What’s going on with me this month?

Finished plotting out the last five chapters and epilogue of The Soul Traveler. The epilogue is set five years after the events of the story. And left it open ended for a possible sequel with an older, none too wiser and still sassy MC, Kyna Lynn James.

But I’ve been dragging my feet on finishing it. It’s like you’re reading the last book in the series. And you don’t want to finish it because then it means it’s really over. And you’re lamenting and cursing yourself on why you had to read through the series so fast. So if you’ve been following the story on Wattpad and anxious to see how it ends, feel free to join my muse in poking me. In jabbing and clobbering me upside my head to get a move on to finish the final eight chapters already.

On another note, I’ve moved my notes and files for my NaNo novel and sequel. Not Dreaming of You has moved out of my ‘story idea’ folder and into a new sub-folder under my ‘Novels’ folder! Trust me, this is cause for celebration. I store all my WIP stories in my ‘Novels’ folder. It’s equal to getting out of the slush pile.

Been working on a game plan for NaNoWriMo, which this time I’ll definitely follow. I’m going to start from the middle, the most troublesome spot for me. And write my way to the beginning. First, I’m starting with a zero draft. And breaking the novel into three acts to outline. I’ll also roughly sketch out some important (done that). Novel length would be at most twenty chapters. I’m also following @Prep_tober on Twitter to better plan a workable draft. And engage with other WriMos.

NaNoWriMo here I come!

I’ve also finished plotting all four novellas in the Foreseen romance series. Each story highlights four friends who have mystical/paranormal gifts. Layla and Bea, two fortune tellers, Jenna the empath and Felicite` is a psychic. For now, the novellas remain in the ‘story idea’ folder. Will travel along Layla, Bea, Jenna and Felicite` HEA stories later.

Here’s a slideshow of my leading ladies, left to right, and their leading men:

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October 4 question – Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?

Personal information? No per say. But I’ve slipped certain experiences into my characters. Like my children’s antics and reactions, the things they say. In my NaNo novel, my hero and heroine will reenact some scenes of the stuff my husband and I did while touring Philadelphia.

What’s going on with you this month? Planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year? Have you begun prepping? Do you outline? What’s your preferred method?

Were you a Beverly Hills 90210 fan? Who was your favorite couple? Character? Did you follow the actors and actresses to other shows after BH90210’s series finale? Followed Shannen Doherty to Charmed. Loved her as Pru but damnit, why did they have to kill her character!? 😦

I should check out that hashtag since this will be the first year I’ve done NaNo. I’m a little nervous since I don’t plot and I usually meander through the writing process. Focus is not my strong suit, but I’ll have to woman up and get it done.

You sound like you have a game plan in place. Good luck to you next month!

Welcome to the WriMo family! Sounds like your pantser. There’s lots of novel and outline tips online for pantsers. Me, I like to plot and outline but I really only use them as a guideline that I can either follow or deviate. Depending on how my character(s) want to tell the story. Good luck to you next month too.

Congratulations on getting so far along! I tend to feel a sense of anticipation when I get close to the end – there’s always the option of sequels if you want to spend more time with the same characters.

Wow! You’re so much more organized about NaNoWriMo than I am. Whenever I participate, I basically just start off with a genre that I think I might like to write in.
And I’ve just started working on the last book in a series. It’s not going particularly well, and I’ve been wondering if that’s because it’s the last one. It’s hard to say goodbye.

It is hard to say goodbye. Along with the goodbyes are the doubts if I’m doing the right thing. Should this character really do this or that. Sigh, you’d think I’d be happy to say goodbye just to finally be done.

Hmm, I wonder if it’s like that for most shows how the first season is usually the most enjoyable. It explains why I love Asian dramas so much because they only have one season. So there’s no more seasons to find less enjoyable.
Thanks Tamara. Right now I’m halfway through chapter 9 and fighting the urge to be a perfectionist.

Congrats on getting the last part of your book plotted. It’s so great to see the end in sight. Kids are a priceless gold mine for antics and pithy quips. Good luck with Nano – I’m planning to do it next year, when writing is my full time job.

Thanks Lee. It wasn’t easy and already some new tists have been born and are waiting to be revealed in the final chapters.
And right you are about kids being priceless. Just last week, I caught my six year old singing Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I like” in the shower word for word. Was so tempted to use the same scenario in a story.
Too bad you won’t be able to do NaNo this year but looking forward to seeing you there in 2018!

It takes me so long to write a book that when it’s nearly done, I’ll be pounding away at the computer to get it done and over with ASAP. I can always write a sequel if I need to come back to the characters again.